Joystick 'n Sliders
  • Ok I will test that, Thanks for your reactivity Mike !
  • Hi, can someone throw some light on how to SHOW the Joystick and Slider controls in the final render. Thanks! :)
  • Hi, can someone throw some light on how to SHOW the Joystick and Slider controls in the final render. Thanks! :)
    The controllers are guide layers, meaning they are meant to be excluded from final render. Right-click the joystick and its origin layers in the timeline. You'll see "Guide Layer" checked in the menu. Uncheck that and you'll be able to see your joystick in your final render.
  • clicking unbind with the mouth null selected causes the L&S Script to freeze up. Tried restarting my mac and reinstalling the script with no luck. Jsxbin and Assets are in the correct location
  • clicking unbind with the mouth null selected causes the L&S Script to freeze up. Tried restarting my mac and reinstalling the script with no luck. Jsxbin and Assets are in the correct location
    Hey Cameron,
    That is no good. Can you fill out a support ticket? This will allow you to upload your project file so I can try to recreate the problem on my end. Are you following the mouth rigging tutorial?
  • clicking unbind with the mouth null selected causes the L&S Script to freeze up. Tried restarting my mac and reinstalling the script with no luck. Jsxbin and Assets are in the correct location
    Hey Cameron,
    That is no good. Can you fill out a support ticket? This will allow you to upload your project file so I can try to recreate the problem on my end. Are you following the mouth rigging tutorial?
    You can fill out a ticket here:https://aescripts.com/contact/
  • I'm having a bit of a trouble here. Let's say that i create a joystick but then i move and keyframe the binded objects maybe by parenting them to a null. If i want to unbind those objects, they break an go to random places on the comp. What can i do?

  • I'm having a bit of a trouble here. Let's say that i create a joystick but then i move and keyframe the binded objects maybe by parenting them to a null. If i want to unbind those objects, they break an go to random places on the comp. What can i do?
    Hi Jamie,
    If you need to parent your bound layers a null, it's best to unbind them from the joystick, parent them to your null, then rebind them to your existing joystick. Then you should be good to go.
     Whenever you parent one object to another, AE updates all of its values to a different object space, which can throw off many expressions.
  • "Joy"stick is right. This plugin freakin' rocks!

    I stole your hipster animation to teach myself how to animate paths:
    image

    More basic rotation and such:
    image

    Thanks for making this! It's gonna save me YEARS of time.
  • I'm currently having a problem with the sliders. I'm setting up a simple left to right head turn with a slider, I've been using Joysticks n sliders for a few months now and not doing anything differently to how it shows to set up the slider in the tutorials, but for some reason now moving the slider from 0 - 100% works fine, but going back down (100 - 0) I get a completely different animation from the same set of key frames. It is totally blowing my mind and is hugely frustrating so any help would be greatly appreciated. 
  • I'm currently having a problem with the sliders. I'm setting up a simple left to right head turn with a slider, I've been using Joysticks n sliders for a few months now and not doing anything differently to how it shows to set up the slider in the tutorials, but for some reason now moving the slider from 0 - 100% works fine, but going back down (100 - 0) I get a completely different animation from the same set of key frames. It is totally blowing my mind and is hugely frustrating so any help would be greatly appreciated. 
    I'm thinking your problem might happen when going between 0 and -100 on your slider controller. That will create an inverse of your pose. If you hold ALT while rigging your sliders, your sliders won't produce an inverse pose at negative values.
  • "Joy"stick is right. This plugin freakin' rocks!

    I stole your hipster animation to teach myself how to animate paths:


    More basic rotation and such:


    Thanks for making this! It's gonna save me YEARS of time.
    Thanks for sharing these Hoser! Great work!
  • clicking unbind with the mouth null selected causes the L&S Script to freeze up. Tried restarting my mac and reinstalling the script with no luck. Jsxbin and Assets are in the correct location
    Hey Cameron,
    That is no good. Can you fill out a support ticket? This will allow you to upload your project file so I can try to recreate the problem on my end. Are you following the mouth rigging tutorial?
    You can fill out a ticket here:
    https://aescripts.com/contact/ 
    I've looked further into this and the slowdown in possibly caused by having a very long work area and many paths. When unbinding pathshapes, J and S has to remove all of your baked path keyframes, which it must do one at a time. Unbinding will be faster if you click on the stopwatch on your path properties before unbinding.
  • I'm currently having a problem with the sliders. I'm setting up a simple left to right head turn with a slider, I've been using Joysticks n sliders for a few months now and not doing anything differently to how it shows to set up the slider in the tutorials, but for some reason now moving the slider from 0 - 100% works fine, but going back down (100 - 0) I get a completely different animation from the same set of key frames. It is totally blowing my mind and is hugely frustrating so any help would be greatly appreciated. 
    I'm thinking your problem might happen when going between 0 and -100 on your slider controller. That will create an inverse of your pose. If you hold ALT while rigging your sliders, your sliders won't produce an inverse pose at negative values.
    Hey Mike, thanks for the response, but unfortunately it is not a problem with negative values I am having. I apologise for wording my problem poorly! 

    The problem I am currently having is when I animate from 0% to 100% the animation plays as it should. But when I set a keyframe to go from 100% back down to 0% the animation is somehow different with 1 layer moving ahead of the other layers. I am currently not having much luck at all for some reason as the same projects, after a weekend break to try and think clearly about the problem, is now responding completely differently and the slider is barely mimicking the animation keyframes i have set at all creating a very stuttery back and forth type animation. It's incredibly troubling as I've never had any problems with the plug in before and normally have a no stress, enjoyable experience when rigging! I hope you can offer some insight as to why it might be playing up so badly
  • I'm currently having a problem with the sliders. I'm setting up a simple left to right head turn with a slider, I've been using Joysticks n sliders for a few months now and not doing anything differently to how it shows to set up the slider in the tutorials, but for some reason now moving the slider from 0 - 100% works fine, but going back down (100 - 0) I get a completely different animation from the same set of key frames. It is totally blowing my mind and is hugely frustrating so any help would be greatly appreciated. 
    I'm thinking your problem might happen when going between 0 and -100 on your slider controller. That will create an inverse of your pose. If you hold ALT while rigging your sliders, your sliders won't produce an inverse pose at negative values.
    Hey Mike, thanks for the response, but unfortunately it is not a problem with negative values I am having. I apologise for wording my problem poorly! 

    The problem I am currently having is when I animate from 0% to 100% the animation plays as it should. But when I set a keyframe to go from 100% back down to 0% the animation is somehow different with 1 layer moving ahead of the other layers. I am currently not having much luck at all for some reason as the same projects, after a weekend break to try and think clearly about the problem, is now responding completely differently and the slider is barely mimicking the animation keyframes i have set at all creating a very stuttery back and forth type animation. It's incredibly troubling as I've never had any problems with the plug in before and normally have a no stress, enjoyable experience when rigging! I hope you can offer some insight as to why it might be playing up so badly
    Hi Peter,
    Can you open up a support ticket for this and upload your project that is giving you this issue? I can't reproduce this problem on my end. https://aescripts.com/contact/
  • I bought this yesterday and thought I'd share my love for it.



    I know, it's not even Halloween yet ... sorry ... ;)

    All characters use the exact same joystick controls.

    Now to make a head/face rig!
  • I bought this yesterday and thought I'd share my love for it.


    I know, it's not even Halloween yet ... sorry ... ;)

    All characters use the exact same joystick controls.

    Now to make a head/face rig!
    Great stuff Xdude!
  • Hey Mike!

    I'm getting some weird results and am a little bit confused as to how sliders work...

    Have you made any slider-specific tutorials? I've watched everything in your Vimeo and YouTube channels, and read the PDF...

    I've got an object that I want to rotate between -10 and +10. Naturally the origin would be 0.

    I'm assuming the slider should work this way...
    Slide it all the way to the left: object is rotated -10.
    Keep it in the middle: object is rotated 0.
    Slide it all the way to the right: object is rotated +10.

    However, when I make an object with 3 keyframes, I end up with 2 sliders. ?!?!
    Their values are ... crazy-wrong.

    So, if I make a slider for an object that only has 2 keyframes, I get one slider (correct) but when I drag it left and right, the values are again too extreme.

    How do I get 1 slider, using the maximum and minimum values - no more and no less?

    Thanks. :)


    **

    EDIT 1:

    I got it ... ;)

    First keyframe: value of 0
    Second keyframe: value of 10
    Create slider.

    Slider left: -10. Slider right: +10.

    Makes sense.

    Thanks again for such an awesome plugin! \m/


    **

    EDIT 2:

    Actually, a little tutorial would be super-helpful.

    Let's say I want to control the position, scale and rotation of an object with individual sliders ... how do I do that?

    I've been experimenting with all kinds of weird keyframe combinations, nothing seems to be working.
  • I got it ... ;)

    First keyframe: value of 0
    Second keyframe: value of 10
    Create slider.

    Slider left: -10. Slider right: +10.

    Makes sense.

    Thanks again for such an awesome plugin! \m/

    Hey Mike!

    I'm getting some weird results and am a little bit confused as to how sliders work...

    Have you made any slider-specific tutorials? I've watched everything in your Vimeo and YouTube channels, and read the PDF...

    I've got an object that I want to rotate between -10 and +10. Naturally the origin would be 0.

    I'm assuming the slider should work this way...
    Slide it all the way to the left: object is rotated -10.
    Keep it in the middle: object is rotated 0.
    Slide it all the way to the right: object is rotated +10.

    However, when I make an object with 3 keyframes, I end up with 2 sliders. ?!?!
    Their values are ... crazy-wrong.

    So, if I make a slider for an object that only has 2 keyframes, I get one slider (correct) but when I drag it left and right, the values are again too extreme.

    How do I get 1 slider, using the maximum and minimum values - no more and no less?

    Thanks. :)
    Glad you got it figured out!
    On my product page you can download my stair rig to play with and see how it's put together. Each effect slider controls 1 pose, and its negative value creates the inverse of its pose.
  • A-ha!

    You may already have documented this somewhere, but in case anybody else comes along looking...

    If you want a Slider with separate Position, Scale and Rotation sliders:
    Frame 1: P/S/R all set to origin value
    Frame 2: Different Position, all others set to origin value
    Frame 3: Different Scale, all others set to origin value
    Frame 4: Different Rotation, all others set to origin value.

    Create a Slider.

    Profit!
  • Yeah hi, it's me again... :)

    Now I have 3 layers, and I want to control their rotations with a single instance of Sliders that has 3 sliders on it.

    Does that make sense?

    So far I've been able to get 1 Slider with 1 slider that controls the rotation of all 3 layers simultaneously. Or 1 Slider with 3 sliders that ... just do weird seemingly-random stuff.

    Thanks.
  • Yeah hi, it's me again... :)

    Now I have 3 layers, and I want to control their rotations with a single instance of Sliders that has 3 sliders on it.

    Does that make sense?

    So far I've been able to get 1 Slider with 1 slider that controls the rotation of all 3 layers simultaneously. Or 1 Slider with 3 sliders that ... just do weird seemingly-random stuff.

    Thanks.
    Ah, I think I understand. To control your three layers' rotations on three separate sliders on a slider null do this:
    let's assume you want your maximum rotation to be 180 degrees and your timeline begins at frame 0:
    frame 0: all layers keyed at 0 rotation
    frame 1: first layer keyed at 180, second and third keyed again at 0.
    frame 2: second layer keyed at 180, first and third keyed at 0.
    frame 3: third layer keyed at 180, first and second keyed at 0.

  • Ah, I think I understand. To control your three layers' rotations on three separate sliders on a slider null do this:
    let's assume you want your maximum rotation to be 180 degrees and your timeline begins at frame 0:
    frame 0: all layers keyed at 0 rotation
    frame 1: first layer keyed at 180, second and third keyed again at 0.
    frame 2: second layer keyed at 180, first and third keyed at 0.
    frame 3: third layer keyed at 180, first and second keyed at 0.

    There it is! Perfect, thanks. I don't think I woulda figured that out on my own :D
  • Hi Mike, 

    I'm loving this script so far but I've been having issues trying to create switch templates with Rubberhose. Just like the body example on your tutorial instead of a shape layer, using a rubberhose for the arms. All works fine with the joysticks but as soon as you bind the switch templates the hoses disappear and don't work like a regular shape layer would. Is just a limitation or am I doing something wrong? I'm definitely not a coder!

    All the best
    Dan 

     
  • Rigging Rubberhoses to switch templates requires a small hack. The rubberHose shape layers have many dependencies to their controller layers, and they break if you move them to a different comp.
    In your Switch template comp, create Nulls and give them the exact names of your RubberHose shape layers. Place them around your comp in the appropriate position. Now, in your main comp, you should be able to bind them to your switch template.
    Switch templates work by finding matching layer names. Your switch template comp must only contain layers that correspond to those in your main comp that you wish to bind.
    Hi Mike, 

    I'm loving this script so far but I've been having issues trying to create switch templates with Rubberhose. Just like the body example on your tutorial instead of a shape layer, using a rubberhose for the arms. All works fine with the joysticks but as soon as you bind the switch templates the hoses disappear and don't work like a regular shape layer would. Is just a limitation or am I doing something wrong? I'm definitely not a coder!

    All the best
    Dan 

     

  • Does this work with After Effects CC 2014 13.2?
  • Does this work with After Effects CC 2014 13.2?
    Hi Blaaow,
    Yes, this works perfectly with CC 2014 13.2.
    There is a bug with 13.0 which has since been patched by Adobe with 13.2. That bug prevents the dropdown menus from refreshing when the user clicks on them.
  • I'm not sure what's happening here... I've already rigged multiple characters w/ path shapes being edited. However, when I duplicate the comp, and start working in the new comp, for whatever reason when I update the path shapes it's not working. Checked all of the code, and the references are all internal and local to the comp, so it doesn't look like they're trying to reach an outside controller. Also, it's updating the path shape before 00:00:00 and correctly updating a few frames inside. I've got the work area spanning the entire comp. Here's a picture of the result: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1749844/jns_error.png

    Send help asap. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Tried AE15 and 17. Tried restarting the machine multiple times. No luck.
  • I'm not sure what's happening here... I've already rigged multiple characters w/ path shapes being edited. However, when I duplicate the comp, and start working in the new comp, for whatever reason when I update the path shapes it's not working. Checked all of the code, and the references are all internal and local to the comp, so it doesn't look like they're trying to reach an outside controller. Also, it's updating the path shape before 00:00:00 and correctly updating a few frames inside. I've got the work area spanning the entire comp. Here's a picture of the result: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1749844/jns_error.png

    Send help asap. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Tried AE15 and 17. Tried restarting the machine multiple times. No luck.
    Hi Tim,
    I think you may have found a bug, which will take me some time to patch. In the meantime, if you can increase the duration of your comp to make up for the time that your paths are not baking and extend the work area to that, you should be able to bake for the frames that you need.
  • Hi everyone,
    I fixed a small bug that was offsetting the pathShape baking inappropriately in comps with lots of other precomps.
  • Hello!

    Joystick is not working on shape paths. It works fine with the position but does not work well with shape paths. I'm using AE cc 17 and Joysticks and sliders trial version. I might be doing something wrong. Please help me.

    You can download the rig using the following link.


    Thanks!
  • Hello!

    Joystick is not working on shape paths. It works fine with the position but does not work well with shape paths. I'm using AE cc 17 and Joysticks and sliders trial version. I might be doing something wrong. Please help me.

    You can download the rig using the following link.


    Thanks!
    Hi Ravi,
    Whenever you move your joystick controller, click the Update PathShape button. This will bake your path keyframes. Watch this video to see how it works. Your rig is working fine on my end.



  • Hello Mike, 

    Love your script very much, However Im face issue in naming my slider  in the stage of my comp ?
  • Hi there, I'm just starting to use this script - very cool stuff!

    I'm working on a character where the nose and mouth switch to flipped versions when the head turns. I figured out how to get that to work using your Switch Templates, but when doing so, the nose and mouth end up switching out at different times (eg: when the joystick is moved a certain amount, the nose will swap, then nudge it a bit more and the mouth will swap). I figured a way around this by having the nose drive the opacity of the mouth switching, but I wanted to point this out as a possible bug. Thanks!
  • Hi there, I'm just starting to use this script - very cool stuff!

    I'm working on a character where the nose and mouth switch to flipped versions when the head turns. I figured out how to get that to work using your Switch Templates, but when doing so, the nose and mouth end up switching out at different times (eg: when the joystick is moved a certain amount, the nose will swap, then nudge it a bit more and the mouth will swap). I figured a way around this by having the nose drive the opacity of the mouth switching, but I wanted to point this out as a possible bug. Thanks!
    Sounds like you came up with a good workaround. If you want different elements to swap at the same, you can make sure the position values of the right nose and right mouth are the same in their respective template comps as well as the left nose and left mouth.
  • Hi everyone,
    I will be totally off-the-grid from Dec 24th to Jan 2, so I won't be able to answer any technical questions during that time. Take a break and enjoy the holiday!
  • Hello Herr Overbeck,

    Im wondering if there is a way to unbind en rebind just one of the layers. I want to update one elements pose, and it takes a bit of time to unbind all just for the nose layers keyframes. 
  • Hello Herr Overbeck,

    Im wondering if there is a way to unbind en rebind just one of the layers. I want to update one elements pose, and it takes a bit of time to unbind all just for the nose layers keyframes. 
    Hi Daniel,
    This is not currently possible, but it could be implemented. I'll consider this for my next update. My thinking was to create a good separation between rigging and animation modes. I also thought unbinding individual layers would not be useful without seeing the other layers in their extreme poses for context.

    If you have lots a baked path shapes and a long timeline, unbinding can take much longer since the script must remove the baked keyframes before going into rigging mode. You can speed that process through by clicking the stop watch on those properties before unbinding to quickly remove the keyframes.

  • Hello,

    Thx for the great script!

    But i'm having a problem. When i choose 3 different (null) layers with position values keyframed and hit create new slider, it creates the null with only one slider controller while i'm expecting 3 different sliders. That one controller controls the other 3 layers at the same time but i don't want that as u can guess.

    I don't think i'm doing anything wrong but probably i am wrong. =)

    Can you give me some advice? I tried your StairRig.aep and in there everything went perfect. 

    I'm using CC 2014 (updated) on Windows 10.
  • Hello,

    Thx for the great script!

    But i'm having a problem. When i choose 3 different (null) layers with position values keyframed and hit create new slider, it creates the null with only one slider controller while i'm expecting 3 different sliders. That one controller controls the other 3 layers at the same time but i don't want that as u can guess.

    I don't think i'm doing anything wrong but probably i am wrong. =)

    Can you give me some advice? I tried your StairRig.aep and in there everything went perfect. 

    I'm using CC 2014 (updated) on Windows 10.

    Hello Utku,

    I think I understand your problem. To create three different sliders, you will need to create four keyframes on each of your null positions. First one being the origin pose, and each one thereafter being a new pose. If you want each slider to move a different null, you would set it up like this:

    Frame 0: All nulls keyed at origin pose,

    Frame 1: Null 1 moves, Nulls 2 and 3 keyed again at origin pose.

    Frame 2: Null 2 moves, nulls 1 and 3 keyed at origin pose,

    Frame 3: Null 3 moves, nulls 1 and 2 keyed at origin pose.

  • Hi Mike, 

    great script, we started using it in our studio for projects last week. 
    Specifically, we used it to rig facial expressions, and we encountered one problem. 

    Multiple people are working on one project, so we have separate AE files containing all the rigs, so we can import them easily into our part of the project. When multiple instances of a rigged character face are imported into the same project, we get expression errors like 'Layer named "..." is missing or does not exist.' Renaming the comps does not solve the issue. 

    Would you know how to solve this? 

    Many thanks! 
  • Hi Mike, 

    great script, we started using it in our studio for projects last week. 
    Specifically, we used it to rig facial expressions, and we encountered one problem. 

    Multiple people are working on one project, so we have separate AE files containing all the rigs, so we can import them easily into our part of the project. When multiple instances of a rigged character face are imported into the same project, we get expression errors like 'Layer named "..." is missing or does not exist.' Renaming the comps does not solve the issue. 

    Would you know how to solve this? 

    Many thanks! 
    Hi Bert,
    Joysticks 'n Sliders will get confused if you have lots of comps with the same name in your project, especially if you are moving controllers to parent compositions. This is probably happening when you merge rigs into one project. I would recommend you have your artists use True Comp duplicator and animate with duplicates of the main rig with unique comp names, and preferrably unique layer names (especially the controller names) BEFORE merging them into a project.
  • Hi Mike,

    Having bought this months ago I finally got a chance to give it a go! Really excited about the possibilities.

    Just had one quick questions- I'm trying to animate an object turning 360 degrees 2-3 times, with strong acceleration/deceleration. I am an absolute novice when it comes to expressions and what have you, but is there a way to emulate this with joysticks n sliders? Is there some way/expression that if the slider goes beyond 100 or -100 that it 'repeats' the poses (for example, going to -200 would be the '100' position on the slider, -300 to 0 and -400 back to the -100 pose- if that makes sense). I tried looking for an expression to link a slider to an angle control null but I had no idea how to figure it out.

    Maybe I'm fumbling my words here- essentially I'm curious if there's a way to emulate this but using a slider/joystick and having the ability to control the speed more easily.


    Thanks in advance, and apologies if this is something relatively tame; just couldn't figure it out or find an answer anywhere!

    Tom.

  • Hi Mike,

    Having bought this months ago I finally got a chance to give it a go! Really excited about the possibilities.

    Just had one quick questions- I'm trying to animate an object turning 360 degrees 2-3 times, with strong acceleration/deceleration. I am an absolute novice when it comes to expressions and what have you, but is there a way to emulate this with joysticks n sliders? Is there some way/expression that if the slider goes beyond 100 or -100 that it 'repeats' the poses (for example, going to -200 would be the '100' position on the slider, -300 to 0 and -400 back to the -100 pose- if that makes sense). I tried looking for an expression to link a slider to an angle control null but I had no idea how to figure it out.

    Maybe I'm fumbling my words here- essentially I'm curious if there's a way to emulate this but using a slider/joystick and having the ability to control the speed more easily.


    Thanks in advance, and apologies if this is something relatively tame; just couldn't figure it out or find an answer anywhere!

    Tom.

    Hi Tomas,
    I see what you're talking about. Joysticks 'n Sliders can't natively make 360 degree rotations like that, but what you could do is create two similar rigs. One for the front rotation, and one for the rear rotation, and cleverly swap them when the character hits its profile pose.
    As far as easing control, for individual layers, stay tuned! An update is coming soon.
    -Mike O
  • Can you make it possible to have animatable switch templates....!
  • Can you make it possible to have animatable switch templates....!
    Hi Gerald,
    I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Do you mean having the switching points of your rigged items change over time? You can take your switch template and increase its duration and frame rate and animate your items, and they will change their switching points over time.

  • Hi,

    Is this a free update from version 1.2, or a whole new purchase..?
  • Hi,

    Is this a free update from version 1.2, or a whole new purchase..?
    Hi Ben,
    This is a free update. To upgrade, go to your account profile, then to My downloads and licenses. From there you can download the new version which should work seamlessly with your pre-existing license. Install by moving the new jsxbin file and assets folder into your ScriptUI folder. You may overwrite your existing files or save version 1.2 in its own folder and set it aside.
  • Hi Ben,
    This is a free update. To upgrade, go to your account profile, then to My downloads and licenses. From there you can download the new version which should work seamlessly with your pre-existing license. Install by moving the new jsxbin file and assets folder into your ScriptUI folder. You may overwrite your existing files or save version 1.2 in its own folder and set it aside.
    Awesome!  Thanks.


    Ben